Photos Of Donald Trump & Tom Brady Will Make You Feel Some Type Of Way

The Super Bowl stirs a lot of emotions across the country, and this year's game is bringing with it a hefty load of history. The New England Patriots are back for the millionth time, lampposts in Philadelphia are greasing up, and a decent portion of the country is glancing over at the White House for a reaction. That's because Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and President Donald Trump actually have a long history of knowing each other, as photos of Trump and Brady evidence. Given that Americans either really, really love or really, really hate both of those people, that relationship garners a ton of raised eyebrows, and the Super Bowl is making everyone think about it, for better or worse.

The Trump-Brady relationship goes back a long time — almost as long as Brady's relationship with the Pats, who drafted him in 2000. According to legend (and the Daily Beast) it all started at the 2002 Miss USA pageant, which Trump ran at the time. For that pageant, Trump flew Brady out on his private jet to act as a judge. "If one thing stands out about Tom Brady, it’s that he loves those women. And guess what? They love him, too," Trump told Sports Illustrated in 2002. Trump so admired Brady as far back as 2004 that he told Playboy he thought he would be "a great combination" with his beloved daughter, Ivanka, who was then 23 (Brady was 27).

Brady said in a 2015 interview that he and Trump golfed together and had phone calls over the years, but their quasi-friendship went largely unnoticed until relatively recently.

"He always gives me a call and different types of motivational speeches at different times," Brady said about their relationship at the time. He added that Trump is "a good friend and we’ve had a lot of time on the golf course together."

After Trump took office, Brady skipped a team visit to the White House in April 2017 to spend time with his mother, he said. And in a December 2017 profile of Trump by The New York Times, reporters wrote that Trump "expresses disappointment that Tom Brady, the New England Patriots quarterback, has distanced himself."